One Pan Wonder – Huevos Rancheros

This week, Andrew and I have decided to share our favourite washing up minimizing one pan wonder meal that we like to prepare whenever we are back in Australia – One Pan Wonder Huevos Rancheros.

This delicious pan contains powdered paprika, parsley, potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, onions, garlic, chorizo, and eggs. That's it. The most delicious and simple one pan wonder dish that can be eaten at any time of the day – breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, midnight snack… you name it!

Let's get down to business then shall we?

The ingredients list depends on how big your high edge frying pan / pot is. Divide in half if you have a small pan:

6 – 8 small potatoes

olive oil (not necessarily required)

200gms of chorizo (or vegetarian sausage also works well)

2 capsicums thinly sliced (red and yellow preferred)

3 garlic cloves

few sprigs of parsley (chop the stalks finely and save the leaves)

1 teaspoon paprika (or mexican spice mix powder)

4 medium ripe tomatoes chopped finely

4 free-range eggs

This is all pretty approximate. Use what you have. Now what do you do with all these ingredients?

Put the potatoes in the high edge frying pan. Turn on the heat to high and add boiling water to cover the spuds. If your frying pan doesn't have high edges, then cook the potatoes in a saucepan instead. Cook the potatoes until a fork pokes the spuds easily. This should take around 10 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, you have time to prepare the rest of your ingredients. You'll need a plate or something else on which you can put your chopped up ingredients.

Preparation:

Slice the chorizo or vegetarian sausage into 1cm pieces, put aside

Chop the garlic really well, put aside

Take the tops off a small bunch of parsley, put them aside for garnish, and then chop the stalks finely, put aside.

The two capsicums also need to be sliced really thinly, into long strips, put aside.

Tomatoes also need to be chopped well, keep as much of the liquid as you can, put aside

If your eggs are stored in the fridge, take them out now so that they warm up a little.

The potatoes should be cooked by now, pour the boiling water out of the pot, allow the potatoes to air dry before slicing into quarters, put these aside too.

Actual Cooking:

These directions involve turning the heat up and down. If that's confusing and if, like Andrew, you choose not to do that then make sure to stir regularly to stop the stuff on the bottom burning.

In your hot pan on a medium heat, add a table spoon or two of olive oil, this isn't really necessary, but I like cooking with olive oil. Let it heat up and then add the sliced chorizo. Cook for about 4 minutes until lightly browned.

Add the chopped garlic and parsley stalks, fry for another couple of minutes.

Add the sliced capsicums and powdered paprika, fry for a minute or two, turn down the heat to medium-low, and cook for about 5 minutes until the capsicum is soft and lightly brown. Don't forget to stir every now and then.

Increase the heat to medium, add your quartered potatoes, stir until the spuds get a little golden brown.

Tomatoes are added, lower the heat again to medium-low, stir, stir and then allow to cook for about 5 minutes.

Make four little spaces in the top of the mixture and add an egg into each spot.

Put a lid on the pan and allow to cook for 3 minutes.

Scoop it out of the pan and onto plates, top with parsley to make it pretty, then eat!

There you have it, one of the tastiest one pan wonders you could ever make for yourself on the road. I tend to make one of these at breakfast time and we end up eating it throughout the day. Delicious!